To the top of Post Office Tower today in London, for a breakfast-time meet with senior BT officials. I wanted to know about their aims to extend broadband, and whether they had plans to improve customer service.

BT is a very important to the economy of Harlow and the Essex in general. It employs 12,500 people in the Eastern Region, with 130 staff from Harlow. (In fact I met a BT engineer who only lived a few houses away from me, when he came to fix a problem with my broadband)!

The company's financial impact in the East of England is huge: around £1.2 billion is brought into the regional economy, with £225 million spent on local suppliers.

I wanted to know what BT does in the community. Given my recent blog postings - It was good to find out that BT operate a major Apprenticeship scheme. They also have a number of volunteers in the East of England, working closely with charities (I was told there were around 176 employees working as volunteers in our locality). Overall £2 million has been spent on Community Activities over the past couple of years.

All good news for Harlow and the East of England in general.

Nevertheless, speaking to a number of residents, I can't help but think that the company's customer service needs dramatic improvement. People don't like waiting for what seems like hours on the phone to get an answer, and all the press 1, press 2 buttons etc. Moreover, their seems to be real dislike at getting through to overseas call centres. BT's response was that some of the call centres are being brought back to the UK and their was a major review underway to improve service to the customer.

Only time will tell whether this improves matters. But I can't help thinking that, even if they have excellent products, which they do, customer satisfaction must be a much higher priority - particularly regarding Broadband is

Nevertheless, the importance of BT to Harlow and the surrounding areas cannot be underestimated, and for that they deserve at least two cheers.

P.S. I met a remarkable man called David in the Post Office Tower. His sole job was to run the lift in the Tower, which for security reasons - he had to be inside the lift for around eight hours today. Of advanced years, I was struck by his cheery countenance. When I asked him if he enjoyed his work in the lift, for so many hours a day, quick as a flash he replied : "it has its ups and downs"! A true gent and an example of wonderful - and personable - customer service.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com